The Pink Stones Thank the Lord… it’s The Pink Stones Normaltown/New West
The front cover of Athens, Georgia band The Pink Stones’ third album features frontman Hunter Pinkston poised in front of a church and casting a shadow that displays a pair of devil horns. The image recalls the religious expression depicted on the album cover from The Louvin Brothers' 1959 SATAN IS REAL. The similarity with those country and gospel singing brothers does not end there either. This eleven-track album, subtitled Eleven New Country Standards, takes its cue from the classic traditional country sounds from the early 1960s to early 1970s, with nods to the Louvin Brothers, Merle Haggard, The Byrds and Gram Parsons. That’s not to say that The Pink Stones are anything like a tribute band, far from it. Pinkson’s aching vocals are tailor-made for his emotion-filled and sometimes playful lyrics, and the arrangement and instrumentation that support him are top drawer.
‘Heartbreak, regret, unrequited love, that’s our wheelhouse,’ explains Pinkston on the framework of their latest record. He co-produced the album with Henry Barbe (Drive By Truckers, Lee Bains, Deerhunter), added lead and backing vocals, and played electric guitars. New band member Caleb Boese’s standout pedal steel is a highlight across the album, and other studio contributors included Michael Alexander (drums), Adam Wayton (bass) and Neil Golden (keyboards). East Nashville’s rising bluegrass star Wyatt Ellis guests on the gospel-like opening and title track, contributing backing vocals and mandolin.
Easy-going rhythm and melding melancholia are the order of the day in Real Sad Movies, Big Jet Planes and Pile of Memories. The more up-tempo Hometown Hotel is a Porter Wagoner-style tale of small-town infidelity, and love lost is lamented in If I Can’t Win (Without You). That tale of loss and fading love also surfaces in Cold Eye of Leaving.
More than living up to the early promise of their two previous records, INTRODUCING THE PINK STONES (2021) and YOU KNOW WHO (2023), Hunter Pinkston and his current line-up have raised the bar several notches this time around. Featuring songs that sound like they have been around forever, the album explores and navigates music from a bygone era and, in doing so, is further evidence that the classic traditional country genre continues to enjoy a welcome rebirth. A hugely impressive album.
Declan Culliton
Margo Price Hard Headed Woman Loma Vista
Despite living in Nashville for two decades, Margo Price’s sixth album, HARD HEADED WOMAN, is the first record she has recorded in Music City. Reuniting with Matt Ross-Spang, who produced her first two albums, MIDWEST FARMER’S DAUGHTER (2016) and ALL AMERICAN MADE (2017), and after a couple of records that strayed away from country towards rock, she returns to the outlaw country vibe of those early career albums. Following in the footsteps of similarly strong-willed artists such as Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, and Merle Haggard, the recordings took place in the historic RCA Studio A, with Price recruiting a host of Nashville's finest, as well as those from further afield, to join in the sessions. Alongside her husband, Jeremy Ivey, other notable guests included Rodney Crowell, Tyler Childers, Shannon McNally, Russ Pahl, Billy Contreras, and Logan Ledger.
Very much a survivor, Price’s 2022 memoir Maybe We’ll Make It was a brutally honest account of vulnerability, alcohol abuse and personal tragedy. Her backstory is one of country legend, and this latest album, in many ways, is a testimony to survival without, for one minute, blocking out the past.
Putting her cards on the table from the get-go, she opens with a short, fiddle led, hymn type prelude (‘I’m a hard headed woman and I don’t owe ya shit, I ain’t ashamed, I just am what I am. I’ve been high as heaven and stubborn as hell. But I ain’t ashamed I’m just a hard headed woman’). Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down follows; the title is borrowed from Kris Kristofferson’s sage advice to Sinead O’Connor, and on this occasion, the guidance offered by Price to the increasingly growing numbers struggling to survive in difficult times. Co-written with Rodney Crowell and her husband Jeremy Ivey, Red Eye Flight is a lively account of a once blissful marriage that is falling apart, and on the other side of the coin is the tender Close To You. The open-hearted and autobiographical latter song, also co-written with Jeremy Ivey, tells the tale of undying love with Price’s delicate vocals backed by atmospheric flamenco guitar. Good times and free spirits are recalled in the toe-tapper Wild At Heart and Price is joined by Jesse Welles in the whirlwind Don’t Wake Me Up, which is derived from a childhood poem written by Price, which Jeremy Ivey came upon.
A few well-chosen covers also feature. Price takes George Jones’ slow burner, ‘I Just Don’t Give A Damn,’ breathes new life into it, and transforms it into a full-on soulful belter. At Jessi Colter’s suggestion, Waylon Jennings’ ‘Kissing You Goodbye’ is included and is also revved up and remodelled. Pride of place among the covers goes to the Stephen Knudson-written call and response love ballad, Love Me Like You Used To Do, where Price and Tyler Childers trade lyrics beautifully in an attempt to rekindle a past romance.
HARD HEADED WOMAN places Margo Price musically where she fits best, as an outspoken country outlaw. An essential role model for other women who operate on the opposite side of the Nashville pop/country music spectrum, let's hope she has returned to her roots and remains here for a while at least. In her own words, ‘country music is my toxic ex and I’m back to kick ass.’ She has done that and more this time around. Welcome back.
Declan Culliton
Grant-Lee Phillips In the Hour of Dust Yep Roc
The twelfth solo album by Grant-Lee Phillips was inspired by a painting that he came upon in the Norton Simon Art Museum in Pasadena, California. The title of that artwork from India, dating back to the 1800s, relates to the time of day when the cows are being led indoors and the dust they kick up. In doing so, they signal the end of the day, triggering the preparation of the night lamps. The title takes on an altogether different direction as Phillips, in his own words, is 'trying to find meaning in an age of confusion, feeling your way through the blinding dust of unreality.'
Much of the material is directed at that confusion and unreality that currently surrounds us, and no more so than in America. Particularly, songs like Bullies (‘Like we’re back on the schoolyard again. Oh, the world is full of bullies’) and Little Men (‘Little men who want to rule like Caesar’) call out the vile and seeking of power at any cost, that progress from the school yard to corporate business and politics, with zero empathy or compassion for the ordinary decent people. The former was composed with pianist and Phillips’ long-time touring partner, Jamie Edwards; the latter considers the underhanded denial of freedom in many forms since the foundation of America.
The contradiction between our advancements in science, which were incomprehensible a few decades ago, and the worrying transfer of decision-making and direction to technology is at the heart of Closer Tonight. The song title 'Did You Make It Through the Night OK?' is borrowed from the Muskogee Nation's traditional morning greeting, which acknowledges the adversity that many of their community have had to endure.
There are also several tender moments. The comforting She Knows Me details the value of support and understanding, and No Mistaking, an ode to Phillips’ long-term wife and fellow artist, Denise Siegel, is an open-hearted expression of love. Optimism and hope are addressed in Dark Ages. Despite its title, the song is a reminder that even the darkest days will pass, and a brighter horizon will emerge (‘Don’t be fooled there are stars behind the clouds…. Don’t despair, there’s more than all of this’).
Phillips’ lyricism, instantly recognisable vocals that encompass both personal and observational themes, and classy arrangements continue to shine brightly on this simply gorgeous collection.
Declan Culliton
Carson McHone Pentimento Merge
Born into an artistic family, her mother, a poetry and short fiction writer, inspired Carson McHone to begin writing poetry and prose at a young age. She started playing guitar and writing songs at the age of sixteen. That swiftly progressed to playing two- and three-hour residencies in two of Austin, Texas, legendary music rooms, The Hole In The Wall and The White Horse.
Lonesome Highway’s introduction to McHone was her 2019 album CAROUSEL, released on the Loose label. An alt-country/folk genre-hopping project, it highlighted a silver-voiced young artist who also knew how to write great songs. STILL LIFE followed three years later, produced by McHone’s husband, Canadian musical chameleon Daniel Romano, and recorded in their home studio in Southern Ontario.
PENTIMENTO, which translates in painting as ‘the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over’, is by far McHone’s most mature and experimental project to date. Deeply personal and tapping into her love of poetry and painting, much of the material was written during lockdown, which proved to be a particularly fruitful period for McHone in both poetry and song composition.
Very much a folk album in the traditional sense, included alongside McHone’s beautifully delivered songs are short spoken interludes, field recordings and snippets of poetry. A benchmark for the album is the British psychedelic folk band of the 1960s, The Incredible String Band, an outfit much loved by McHone. The track September Song from this album was named after that band’s October Song, which featured in their debut self-titled album from 1966. A more contemporary traditional British folk band, The Unthanks, comes to mind in the haunting track, Wake You Well.
Though primarily written during the COVID lockdown, Triumph Of The Heart dates back to when McHone moved from Texas to her current home in Ontario, and its lyrics featured in one of the first postcards she wrote from there. Opening with a short poetry reading by Romano and following mid-paced vocals by McHone, Fruits Of My Tending explodes mid-song with a lengthy guitar burst by Romano before ending abruptly close to the six-minute mark. Another key inclusion is the opening full song, Winter Breaking. It follows McHone’s short spoken poetry reading intro, and with layered vocals, woozy keys, and handclaps, it is a thunderous inclusion.
Personal, powerful and profound, PENTIMENTO is an extraordinarily mature project from McHone that requires listening in one sitting. It’s also a giant leap forward by an artist who has truly broadened her horizons with this record.
Declan Culliton
Joel Plaskett One Real Reveal Self Release
Since the 1990s this Canadian musician/songwriter, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been creating music of a consistently high quality. Whether in a band environment with early groups such as Thrush Hermit and Neuseiland, or fronting his own group The Emergency, Joel Plaskett has been at the cutting edge with his artistic endeavours, spanning different genres of music and always delivering real excellence.
This album escaped the attention of the Lonesome Highway team when it first appeared back in 2024, but through a strange turn of fate, it fell onto our radar recently with the new release of a tribute album to Joel’s talents (also reviewed here). The twelve tracks on this solo album are delivered in a very intimate, stripped down fashion. No other musicians were used on these songs, apart from some Wurlitzer played by Bill Stevenson, with Joel contributing on a selection of guitars, banjo, mandolin and piano. The songs are musings on matters of life and love, with fleeting reflections, sliding door moments, synchronicity, ‘what if’ scenarios and always coloured with an overarching sense of ‘why not’?
The stripped back arrangements were recorded on analogue format and four-track, with spoken word on some tracks and vocals that were double tracked for greater effect on others. Memory is a big factor in these songs and Joel has said that time travelling is part of what music is all about. We see this clearly in the songs here, snippets of reflection and nostalgia, and a nice sense of place and time. Also, where aspirations and dreams can point to a future direction, therein lies the real gold, such as the title track One Real Reveal where the urge is to want more and to strike out for the horizon ‘I’m not so sure it’s gonna set us free, But if you’re walking out the door, Wait for me, I’m hot on your heels.’
In Let Me Go, Jo we have the plea ‘Let me go, Jo, Let me go make my mistakes, The pedal to the metal, Just to know that them’s the brakes.’ There is a sense of wanting to be fully invested in everything that makes life worthwhile. Many of Joel’s songs display a sense of longing in the words and their delivery, which leads the listeners to form their own insights from the meaning. Joel is a consummate wordsmith, and his songs often challenge the listener to meet him at the door that opens into hidden emotions. He is very playful with language, as with the opening to Blind Spots ‘Salacious stories, Curvaceous lady, This spaceship sure feels spacious lately.’ The song suggests lost love and a change of heart.
There are five tracks that run at just two minutes, or less, in length. They are vignettes into feelings expressed, such as I Sell Flowers that poses a question regarding a brief moment with a passing stranger and the transient nature of communication. The song Variations On A Theme plays along similar lines in examining the variety in relationships, and in It’s Almost Over Now we have an old memory mixed with a sense of regret as a romance comes towards an ending. High Summer and Iona are similar songs in that they capture moments now lost in time and that heady feeling of first love is superseded by the realisation that we are not so different in our emotional core after all.
Perhaps it’s just a small part in the play of life and those lines from Shakespeare ring true “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.” The weary traveller in Rainy Day Janey asks for temporary respite from the rain on the living room floor of a friend ‘Can I sleep on your floor for the night? I don’t have a pillow but that’s not my going concern, I can roll up my jacket alright, I’ll let myself out in the mornin’ - You won’t even know I was here.’
And maybe it all resolves in the love song Breezy Jane that closes out the album in the knowledge that ‘I was goin’ through the motions, I was stayin’ in my lane, Now I couldn’t care less that I’m standin’ in the rain, Where ya been all my life, Breezy Jane?’ Love indeed conquers all in the final reckoning. This album comes highly recommended, superbly delivered and full of insight, humour and reflection.
Paul McGee
Various Artists Joel Plaskett -Songs From the Gang Turtlemusik
Ever since a debut album launched the solo career of this Canadian singer songwriter back in 1999, Joel Plaskett has had a creative output that stands tall in terms of quality and style. Whether recording under his band name The Emergency or, as a solo artist, this multi-instrumentalist has amassed an impressive number of album releases, EPs, and compilations, including rarities and popular songs.
He is such a strong artist in his melodic instincts, in the superbly crafted lyrics around the song arrangements, and with his overall sense of having fun and not taking it all too seriously. The albums span a number of genres, to the extent where I would term his output as blending and transcending any such imposed limits. He formed the indie-rock band Thrush Helmet in the early 1990s and gravitated to Neuseiland towards the end of that decade, a band that fused experimentation with conventional song structures. Joel has been nominated for numerous East Coast Music Awards over his career and he has always applied a pioneering approach to different experimental projects.
In 2009 the album Three was released and it consisted of three discs, each consisting of nine songs, with a total of 27 tracks to enjoy. A lot of the song titles had three repeated words as a play on the theme. Jump forward to 2020, and Joel completed an album titled 44 and yes, you guessed it, the four discs contained eleven songs on each. It was given a release on the last day that he was 44 years old.
And now, we bring everything full circle in 2025 with a celebration to mark Joel Plaskett turning 50 years of age. His management team commissioned SONGS FROM THE GANG as a tribute album, featuring 23 Canadian acts who recorded cover versions of songs chosen from Plaskett’s broad repertoire. The project was not revealed to Joel in advance of its release, and it is a sign of the esteem in which this popular musician is held that so many of his contemporaries willingly took part.
The songs vary widely in their interpretations and cover a full range, from blues to folk, hard rock to country, with some pop leanings included. There are six songs covered from the LA DE DA album (2005), a further four selected from the THREE release (2009), with three songs selected from each of ASHTRAY ROCK (2007) and SCRAPPY HAPPINESS (2012). Everyone will have their own personal favourites of course and the entire project is an unqualified success, with stellar performances from all involved.
Personal highlights for me include the reflective takes on Please Don’t Return by Bahamas, All the Way Down the Line by City and Colour, and Lonely Love courtesy of Mo Kinney. Also, honourable mention for the upbeat You’re Mine by Frank Turner, the playful Come On Teacher by Arkells, and the driving I Love This Town by Sloan. No matter what songs you care to highlight, the entire listening experience is filled with great moments. An engaging and recommended album.
Paul McGee
Charles Wesley Godwin Lonely Mountain Town Big Loud
For someone who is still in his early thirties, this West Virginian artist has achieved quite a lot over a relatively short career to date. Godwin learned to play guitar in his early twenties after calling time on a dream to make American football his professional career. Already, he is the creative source of three fine albums, along with a number of Eps and singles, and his growing reputation continues to draw accolades, fully evidenced on this seven-song release that finds Godwin in reflective mood throughout.
Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers makes an appearance on the cover song Hammer Down which was originally penned by Jason Molina, and the artist ERNEST sings on another song Dead To Rights. All of the songs have a chilled, mid-tempo feel to them and they highlight the superb vocals of Godwin as he sings of lonely hearts and broken down places, experienced while touring around various American cities and townships. The life of a travelling minstrel, captured in these insights and reflections and some insight of life on the road for a living.
The title track is a song that echoes the loneliness of missing your kin while out on the road ‘This lonely mountain feels empty when there’s people all around.’ Elsewhere, the words on It’s the Little Things, highlight the simple things that we can take for granted, “It’s the little things like the look she gives me in the morning.” On Dead To Rights we are treated to atmospheric pedal steel on a love song that reflects upon the power of attraction “You crashed into me, Like that damn left hook I never got to see.” On the song It’s Her Move the gentle acoustic guitar showcases that endless highway always pulling at the hopes of any sustained relationships. The ensemble playing is very enjoyable as the sense of distance paints an atmospheric picture.
On Then I’m Gone the singer is looking back to a potential life of settling down versus that choice of singing songs for a living from town to town. She Don’t Love Me Anymore is a reflective performance on guitar that echoes regret at the ending of a relationship and admits “been having a hard week, For the last year.” The final song Hammer Down is a wry look at feelings of melancholy and the urge to keep moving, destination unknown “When it's been my ghost and the empty road, I think the stars are just the neon lights.”
Producer, guitarist and bandmate, Al Torrence recorded these songs at his Music Garden Studios in New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Charles Wesley Godwin is supported by his live band, the impressive Alleghany High, with Ben Townsend (banjo, fiddle), Joe Pinchotti (drums), Don Garvin (bass), John Rickard (dobro, pedal steel), joining Al Torrence (guitar, keyboards, mandolin), to deliver in great style on these songs. This mini-album is certainly worth the investment and takes its place in the rising career of James Wesley Godwin with plenty of poise and presence.
Paul McGee
Freight Old Bones Switchyard
This band define their sound as Rural Rock and Country Funk and their base is located in Ithaca, NY. They were founded in 2020 by JP Payton and their debut album that year was titled HARD WORKER.
There is an impressive array of musicians on this very enjoyable album and contributions are supplied by the following: Bowman Townsend, Jeremy Bussman, Chris Ploss, Wade Fedder, Russ DeLuca (drums), Mike Brando, Mike DuMont (bass), RP Payton (pedal steel, dobro, electric guitar, bass, synthesizer), Liam Lawson, Joe Rian (electric guitar), Cory Holbert (electric guitar, keyboards), Sam Lupowitz (keyboards), Sheila Bertoletti (keyboards, organ), Colleen Countryman (organ, piano), and Loveday Greene (backing vocals).
Quite a list of players guesting across different songs and the album is packed with inviting hooks and melodies, all sourced from the creative muse of JP Payton (acoustic, electric guitars and lead vocals), who wrote the ten songs, including one co-write. The album was recorded at Sunwood Studios in Trumansburg, NY by Jaime Gartelos.
Big Bright Moon has a traditional country sound with superb pedal steel and a sweet groove that sees the singer returning back home from being too long on the road. The title track Old Bones is in similar territory as the singer reflects upon taking a relationship break and l can sense the longing in the restrained guitar lines, “Old ways die hard, and old ways leave scars.”
Found A Love has a slow rhythm and the fine vocal of Payton compliments the deep guitar melody that winds around the atmospheric and restrained power. Loving Arms has some excellent acoustic guitar picking and the song build up excites as it develops into a fine work out with all the players joining towards a satisfying resolve. It’s followed by the longest track on the album Travesty, with dynamic pedal steel to lift the harmonics and propel the song along with an energy. New Coat has a nice Americana looseness in the arrangement that reminds me of a Son Volt vibe, with dobro mixing into the cool guitar picking and a lazy beat unfurling a sense of freedom in the delivery.
Cry Honey is one part rockabilly, one part rocking beat, that shouldn’t work, but happily knocks it out of the park, and I’m sure that it’s a killer song when played live. Things slow down on Somehow and a nice country love song “‘Baby can you lift me up, I’ve been too far down on love.” The next song is the excellent Skyrocket and again the band excel on a fine vocal duet shared with Loveday Greene and gritty guitar embellishing the warm keyboard swells.
The final song is Too Much and it wraps everything up nicely with a brightly coloured testament of love, complimented by the excellent rhythm section bringing the groove, and the atmospheric guitar sound rising to meet the harmony vocals. A very impressive album and certainly one that will bring many hours of enjoyment and entertainment.
Paul McGee
JP Payton Mtn Blue Switchyard
Not content to focus exclusively on the new album from JP Payton’s band Freight (also reviewed), this talented New York resident has also recorded a solo album of some resonance and depth. Both albums bring plenty of riches in their content, with a band dynamic on one, balanced against the acoustic calm of the other. Payton grew up in Bloomington, Indiana and released a debut EP in 2019, and he writes thought-provoking songs that reflect our daily hopes and fears, with insight and perspective upon what is really important in the enduring play of life.
Thank You So kicks off proceedings with a warm vocal and fingerstyle guitar. It’s a positive affirmation of others and an appreciation for all that we share together. The next song is Little Late and this is a relationship song that asks for some common ground between lovers; in stark contrast to the universal love expressed in the opener. An interesting juxtaposition and one that draws you into the rest of this album.
The song Job Well Done observes the life of a guy who is just trying to get ahead and facing his commitments, while Wheel’s Falling Off has the returning hero trying to find a way back to something once left behind; can you ever replace what now appears lost? Big Bright Moon is a solo acoustic rendition of a song that appears on the latest Freight album Old Bones and it’s another road song about setting your compass home by the light of the moon. Another song Starting Over Again is about recovering from a toxic relationship and getting your mojo back in gear.
Although the songs are simple acoustic guitar and vocal, there is an immediacy and an intimacy that settles like a warm blanket around feelings of a shared knowledge and understanding. The song Need To Know asks whether innocence of youth is completely gone in the propensity as adults to try and learn what it’s supposedly all about, and where everything fits. Living in the moment is more than enough, as evidenced in the lyric ‘And I don’t even need to know what it’s all about, The sun’s setting low and we’re here right now.’
The next two songs also appear on the Old Bones album with Somehow asking for a healing balm and a cure from loves arrows ‘ Bent out of shape and broke down,’ while Travesty has superb guitar picking on a song that deals with raising funds for a headstone to honour a friend that has passed away. Sing Back has a late night feel surrounding the vocal delivery and strummed guitar, the song hinting at a rueful sense of something missed. Love never runs in straight lines.
6th of Jan is a song that captures the Trump supporters march on Washington DC back in 2021, expressing the disbelief that many felt with that turn of events. Again, you can enjoy the superb guitar playing on this track and throughout the album. A second guitar features, with Liam Lawson on nylon strings playing as a counterpoint and a key part of this song. There is also a female vocal on Somehow that is courtesy of the impressive Loveday Greene. The final song is Lights Out and it has an easy melody to soothe the listener “When I close my eyes I’m dreaming, and my heart touches clouds.” Again, twin guitars playing in unison here, and a perfect coda to an album that will bring many admirers to this engaging music.
Paul McGee